There is a famous story in RAAF circles about 10 Wirraway trainers. An Australian version derived from the American T6 Texan Aeroplane.

The Story of John Lerew DFC - a Hero of Rabaul 1942

At Rabaul in January 1942 Wing Commander John Lerew commanded 24 Squadron RAAF, equipped with four modified airliners and ten Wirraway training planes. His Wirraways lasted seven minutes against a Japanese air armada of 109 fighters and bombers.

The remaining air strength at Rabaul comprised two aircraft, and when he asked for modern fighters, Lerew was told that there were none - but he was to attack.

He then sent the Roman gladiator’s salute to HQ: ‘We who are about to die salute you.’

When ordered to leave Rabaul alone and hand over his men to be used as infantry in the hopeless sacrifice against the Japanese invasion force, Lerew ignored it and organised and led the successful escape of his men to New Guinea, saving them from certain death in Japanese captivity.

Back on bombing operations soon after, he led a volunteer strike against Japanese ships at Gasmata, but was shot down, and made a miraculous escape from his blazing Hudson, evaded Japanese searchers and returned to safety. Afterwards, Lerew commanded the biggest RAAF depot in Australia at Laverton, and in 1945 established the RAAF Directorate of Flying Safety.

In 1946 he joined the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the quiet achievers who made possible safe standardised international airline operations enjoyed around the world today.

This is John Lerew’s story, from joining the RAAF in 1932, through the pre-war years, the wartime expansion, his operational experiences and his post-war work to make civil aviation safe for all concerned.

The T 6 Texan.

NOTE: Member, Tomasia uses this site to slander other individuals. He then later proclaims it a joke, but not in public.
I will call him a liar and a dog here and now.
Banjo.

While the Spitfire and Hurricane are remembered as the machines that saved Britain from Nazi invasion, the Lancaster and Halifax are lauded as the warhorses that took the fight to the Third Reich.
But there is an argument that the country’s greatest aircraft of the Second World War was none of these, but the less heralded de Havilland Mosquito.
This versatile, two-man machine, designed by the British aviator pioneer Geoffrey de Havilland, served with distinction as a fighter, bomber, U-boat hunter and night fighter, as well as in reconnaissance roles and as a pathfinder on large-scale bombing attacks.
It was behind some of the most stunning raids of the war – among them the precision operation to attack the Gestapo headquarters in Oslo, Norway; and another to breach the walls of a prison in Amiens to allow the escape of condemned resistance fighters.
Its greatest attribute, its speed, came from its unusual construction. To preserve metal reserves, it was made of wood, its parts crafted by carpenters and joiners in workshops turned over from furniture and cabinet-making. The components, from spruce, birch, balsa and plywood, were then put together with glue.

RAAF Mosquito.

NOTE: Member, Tomasia uses this site to slander other individuals. He then later proclaims it a joke, but not in public.
I will call him a liar and a dog here and now.
Banjo.

An aircraft I'm glad the Soviets never built was the Tu-148, a interceptor version of the Tu-22M Backfire bomber, equipped with the radar and AA-9/R-33 missiles of the MiG-31 interceptor (ranges similar to the American F-14's AWG-9 radar and AIM-54 Phoenix missiles), as it would have had the range and speed to keep up with squadrons of Tu-22Ms and their Kh-15 antiship missiles, big, fast, and powerful enough to devastate a carrier battlegroup. Flying ahead of the bombers, they could have posed a serious problem for the fleet defense interceptors trying to stop the bombers/missiles.

Even if they had been built, I don't know that the Soviets would have used them to knock out fleet defense interceptors. They were actually built because the Soviets realized they had too much territory to defend with SAM sites alone, so they needed a jet that could travel for long distances at high speed to intercept American bombers penetrating their airspace. However, it was determined that the MiG-31 could do the job, so the project was terminated.

Edit to Add: And Banjo, you're totally right. The Mosquito is the most underestimated aircraft of that theater. It did everything, and it did it well. I guess wooden planes aren't considered "sexy".

"Theology made no provision for evolution. The biblical authors had missed the most important revelation of all! Could it be that they were not really privy to the thoughts of God?" - E. O. Wilson

(27-06-2016 03:36 PM)RocketSurgeon76 Wrote: An aircraft I'm glad the Soviets never built was the Tu-148, a interceptor version of the Tu-22M Backfire bomber, equipped with the radar and AA-9/R-33 missiles of the MiG-31 interceptor (ranges similar to the American F-14's AWG-9 radar and AIM-54 Phoenix missiles), as it would have had the range and speed to keep up with squadrons of Tu-22Ms and their Kh-15 antiship missiles, big, fast, and powerful enough to devastate a carrier battlegroup. Flying ahead of the bombers, they could have posed a serious problem for the fleet defense interceptors trying to stop the bombers/missiles.

Even if they had been built, I don't know that the Soviets would have used them to knock out fleet defense interceptors. They were actually built because the Soviets realized they had too much territory to defend with SAM sites alone, so they needed a jet that could travel for long distances at high speed to intercept American bombers penetrating their airspace. However, it was determined that the MiG-31 could do the job, so the project was terminated.

Edit to Add: And Banjo, you're totally right. The Mosquito is the most underestimated aircraft of that theater. It did everything, and it did it well. I guess wooden planes aren't considered "sexy".

Hell, rocket, dead right, man if you don't think the mosquito is sexy you are fucking brain dead IMHO

I just want to introduce all you aviation fans to what I think is the best aviation simulator available, the Digital Combat Simulator, or DCS for short. It is entirely fan-created, and 100% realistically models the flight characteristics and cockpit interfaces of each aircraft, from WW2-era BF109s (etc) to Korean War jets to 80s-era jet fighters (truly modern 5th-generation fighters are not modeled in the game because they are still classified in too many respects to enable the team to add them).

The game has gone from its original 1.0 version through 1.5 to the recently-released 2.0, which is still being developed, but which shows significantly improved graphics. The first two videos are from the original version, and the last is a demonstration of the amazing new visuals.

This is my favorite dogfight I've yet seen. It's from version 1.5, which has slightly improved graphics over the original. Combat action starts at the 9-minute mark:

This is my favorite ground-attack mission, from early on in the game, so poorer graphics. It shows two A-10s defending a column of Humvees from a mechanized Company of Taliban soldiers. I especially enjoy the strafing runs:

And finally, the high-graphics, recent update. It shows both an Su-25 Frogfoot (Russian equivalent of the A-10) getting shot down by antiaircraft guns, as well as showing some of the ground forces, which can also be played in-game:

"Theology made no provision for evolution. The biblical authors had missed the most important revelation of all! Could it be that they were not really privy to the thoughts of God?" - E. O. Wilson

And just for Banjo, a guy in a P-51 taking out an FW-190, using the new version of the VIVE display (similar to the Oculus) which lets you realistically look around "head on a swivel", like real fighter pilots do. The experience is supposed to be breathtaking.

"Theology made no provision for evolution. The biblical authors had missed the most important revelation of all! Could it be that they were not really privy to the thoughts of God?" - E. O. Wilson